# Quote — Ben Aaronovitch, Broken Homes

> Even hardened professional villains consent to be policed. This is clear from the way they complain that nonces, rapists and bankers get shorter sentences than decent ordinary criminals. It’s the same with all the other criminals, the weekend shoplifters, the drunk drivers, the overexcited protesters and executives who pop in to the loo for a quick snort. When it’s their stuff that goes walkies, or their car that’s damaged, when their kids go missing and their briefcases gets snatched, they all seem to be pretty consensual about the police. Everyone consents to the police. It’s just the operational priorities they argue about.

- Author: [Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md)
- Book: [Broken Homes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/broken-homes.md)
- Page: 260
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ben_Aaronovitch#Broken_Homes_(2013)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/broken-homes/even-hardened-professional

## More from this book

> Most people don’t see half of what’s in front of them. Your visual cortex does a shit load of imaging processing before the signal even gets to your brain, whose priorities are still checking the ancestral savannah for dangerous predators, edible berries and climbable trees. That’s why a sudden cat in the night can make you jump and some people when distracted, can walk right out in front of a bus. Your brain just isn’t interested in those large moving chunks of metal or the static heaps of brightly colored stuff that piles up in drifts around us. Never mind all that, says your brain, it’s those silent fur-covered merchants of death you’ve got to watch out for.

p. 78 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/broken-homes/most-people-dont.md)

> It’s a police mantra that all members of the public are guilty of something, but some members of the public are more guilty than others.

p. 3 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/broken-homes/its-a-police.md)

> Dedication: This book is dedicated to all the people who get up and do something about it, whatever it is and however small the thing is they do.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/broken-homes/dedication-this-book.md)